Brookhaven Lab Honored with the 2009 Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility on Long Island

October 30, 2009

Susan Foster, Brookhaven Lab's Employee Relations Manager

UPTON, NY — The U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory has been selected as a winner of the 2009 Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility on Long Island. The award recognizes employers on Long Island who successfully use workplace flexibility to meet both organizational and employee goals.

The National Association of Mothers’ Centers, the local award sponsor, will honor Brookhaven Lab, along with nine additional winners of the Sloan Award on Long Island at the 14th Annual Work/Life Conference at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury on November 6.

“We recognize the importance of supporting a balanced work-family life in order to attract and retain the most talented individuals to a highly trained and specialized workforce,” said Susan Foster, Brookhaven Lab’s Employee Relations Manager. “We review our human resources policies and the Laboratory’s working environment continually to be sure we are being responsive to employees’ needs.”

Established in 1947, Brookhaven Lab is home to seven Nobel Prizes and is internationally known for excellence in basic and applied scientific research. Brookhaven has many family-oriented programs to support and encourage a balance of work and family life. Several options of flexible schedules are available to employees, along with an on-site Child Development Center that provides day care for infants and preschool children; an on-site summer camp; an adoption assistance program; excellent employee benefits, including same-sex domestic partner benefits; an on-site employee assistance program; wellness programs; a scholarship program for children of employees; and very active recreation programs, including on-site exercise facilities, tennis courts, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

The Sloan Award is sponsored by the When Work Works project, an initiative of the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that studies the changing workforce, family and community; the Institute for a Competitive Workforce, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; and the Twiga Foundation, which promotes a family consciousness at home, in the workplace and in the community.

Applicants for the award were evaluated in a rigorous two-step process, first comparing the employer’s application to nationally representative data from the Families and Work Institute’s National Study of Employers. If the applicant places in the top 20 percent – at or above the 80th percentile of employers nationally – the institute proceeds to the next step, an employee survey to corroborate the employer responses.

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One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical,
biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security.
Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry
and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of Science by Brookhaven
Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by the Research Foundation for the State
University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory
facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit applied science and technology organization.